Water Heater Program

The cooperative offers the following rebate program for electric water heaters installed in the cooperative's service territory.

Water Heaters (Installed in BHEC's service territory)— For new construction: Black Hills Electric Cooperative will sell to the builder or homeower a Marathon water heater with a life-time warranty on the tank for half the cooperative's cost. For new construction using a non-Marathon water heater, the cooperative will pay $1 per gallon.

Replacing an electric water heater: Members may purchase a Marathon water heater from the cooperative at a discount. The cooperative does not pay a rebate for replacing an electric water heater with a non-Marathon water heater.

For fossil fuel conversion: BHEC will sell a Marathon water heater to its members for 75% off our cost or the member may receive $3 per gallon if replacing other fuel with an non-Marathon electric water heater purchased elsewhere.

Load control of large water heaters: Per the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, passed by Congress in 2015, all water heaters 55-gallons or larger must be part of a load control program managed by the cooperative. There is no charge for cooperative personnel to install the equipment. The water heaters will be turned off by the cooperative when there is a system peak to reduce demand on the system.Water heaters will only be off during the actual peak time(s), which could vary from a few minutes to a few hours. Most people with a large water heater won't notice that their water heater is being controlled.

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